Life & Style reporter

For all of life's flintier times, overall we're a bubbly bunch. In fact, neuroscience and social science suggest we're more optimistic than realistic, says Tali Sharot in her book, The Optimism Bias: Why we're wired to look on the bright side.

"On average, we expect things to turn out better than they wind up being," she says. "People hugely underestimate their chances of getting divorced, losing their job, or being diagnosed with cancer; expect their children to be extraordinarily gifted; envision themselves achieving more than their peers; and overestimate their likely lifespan (sometimes by 20 years or more)."

We might not be right, but does it matter?

It depends.

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There is increasingly strong evidence of the links between our psychological and physical health. A new study by Harvard of nearly 1000 people over a 10 year period has found that optimistic individuals have higher levels of antioxidants (which may help to reduce cell damage and prevent disease).

Previously, it has been found that positivity also offers a level of protection against heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular problems.

The studies controlled for health, however they acknowledge that positive people are more likely to engage in healthy behaviours such as exercise, a balanced diet and taking the time to get sufficient sleep.

So it is fair to say that an emotionally healthy heart is also often a physically healthy one. Plus, there's a delightful innocence in optimism. And hope helps us get there.

But, of course even though die-hard optimists will instinctively deny it, there is a flip side. For those who naturally err on the cautious, perhaps pessimistic, side of life, being forced to look on the bright side can have a negative effect. This is because, for some people, preparing for the worst helps them to do their best, says psychologist Julie Norem in her book, The Positive Power of Negative Thinking.

Additionally, pessimists and people with mild depression make more accurate predictions of the future, because they see the world as it is, not through rose-coloured glasses.

"Overly positive assumptions can lead to disastrous miscalculations," Sharot says. They "make us less likely to get health checkups, apply sunscreen or open a savings account, and more likely to bet the farm on a bad investment."

But, then of course, that very same optimism will help us to overcome those losses.

We are not, as psychologist Paul Meehl pointed out, fragile as spun glass - and optimism allows us to remain resilient, enduring natural disasters, the loss of loved ones and other traumas. In the face of devastation the majority of trauma-exposed people (around 70 to 75 per cent) do not develop post-traumatic stress disorder. This is, at least in part, attributed to hope.

Optimism, Sharot says, also acts as protection, as it counters the negativity and pessimism that comes with the awareness of death.

"Knowledge of death had to emerge side by side with the persistent ability to picture a bright future," she says.

And it is sitting side by side that they seem to be healthiest; in the delicate balance where a little weighty pessimism anchors a lot of airy, but brilliant optimism.

"Once we are made aware of our optimistic illusions, we can protect ourselves," Sharot says. "It is possible, then, to strike a balance, to believe we will stay healthy, but get medical insurance anyway; to be certain the sun will shine, but grab an umbrella on our way out - just in case."

Correction: This article has been amended to include the word "may" before "help to reduce cell damage and prevent disease".

28 comments

Just last week, right here in the august editions of Fairfax Media, I practiced using the word "optimism" in almost 100 "Comments".

At no time were the Abbott supporters comfortable with it, they were, literally, crying with rage that they had no way to counter "optimism".

The poor buggers didn't even have the brains to use the Abbott slogan "hope and reward" and yet they want Australia to be optimistic that Abbott will lead us to hid version of the promised land.

Sorry to have to do it again ....... but I am optimistic that the Australian voter will see the Abbott team for the hollow shell that it is.

Commenter

J. Fraser

Location

Queensland

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 9:00AM

Oh I highly doubt we're all optimistic.

Commenter

Alex

Location

Geelong

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 12:38PM

I, like you am optimistic, that Premier "Can Do" Campbell Newman will be re-elected at the next QLD state elections.

Commenter

SmallTalk

Location

Sydney

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 1:59PM

I'm pessimistic about all this optimismI just can't see it working yetor can I

Commenter

Jill

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 9:32AM

We have known this for ages, and you see the workplace conflict between managers -- the visionaries who are hired because of their optimistic goal-setting and "can-do" attitude, and the technocrats, who can explain that the ridiculous ideas can't work and won't work.For a long time, the failures have been blamed on a recalcitrant attitude amongst workers ; "change managers" have been brought in to deal with obstructionist underlings. Yet it's time to look at the source of the problem: the managers are naively optimistic, and incapable of the deep analysis that reveals flaws in their vision. They are glib, and easy targets for management gurus and other shysters -- including those who ply them with important-sounding folderol such as "Master of Business Administration".

Commenter

L. Beau Bendon Stretton

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 9:35AM

that is a very interesting idea and one which I have also seen in practice.

Commenter

Roaster

Location

Sydney

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 10:08AM

Thanks for the laugh and insight with your correct and boring post. The source of the problem, as in the source of rivers - is a complex, time and shape-shifting self-similar structure, or fractal. That is the reason why the hierarchies and remuneration structures within universities, corporations and governments resemble each other (proto-Ponzi schemes?) - and why they are always in bed with each other. Corporations should not use recruitments agencies - they need to take a risk and actually hire people using faith and their own judgments. Managers need skin the game instead of just being there to take credit for other peoples work. Experts who prescribe advice need to be held accountable when the person receiving the advice depends on that advice to make an important decision.

Commenter

Black Palm

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 1:10PM

You mean the visionaries who started companies like Microsoft and Facebook, with their silly optimism, who are now employing hundreds of technocrats telling them "it won't work"?

There's a difference between being optimistic and unrealistic.

Commenter

Bob

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 1:39PM

But those whinging technocrats are employed by the blindly unrealistic visionaries, and in fact their entire place of employment was founded by overly optimistic visionaries...

Commenter

A

Date and time

February 04, 2013, 1:41PM

I've always thought that pessimism and realism had a lot in common, so the result makes sense to me Now I'm curious how long it would take them to work out that relentlessly optimistic "visionary leaders" in business and politics - people who, for example, imagine that "the market" will magically solve all of our problems if only we make it "free" enough - are actually suffering from a form of mental impairment?